Archive for 'Finland'

Vesa Pohjalainen of Finland wishes everyone a happy holidays this season with this great photo of his Saab 900 Convertible, complete with SPG kit in red!

Vesa is a member of the Saab Club of Finland as well, and he really keeps his car looking nice! I remember seeing the Saab Club of Finland at the 2007 Saab Festival in Sweden and wow, they were pretty organized. Their entire club chartered a bus so that the entire club could drive around in the comfort.

The holidays are almost here and with that many of us may be gathering with other friends and loved ones.

Some of you may even have some good stories to share during this time, so I decided to share with you, a classic film done in 1988 called “Saab Choice Of Generations”, about a Swedish family filled with Saab enthusiasts!

This is an oldie but a goodie, and makes you wonder who approved the budget for this 15 minute masterpiece at Saab-Scania’s Car Division at the time?

From 1969 Saab-Scania at the time has had a presence in Uusikaupunki, Finland until Saab Automobile concluded their collaboration when the last 9-3 was built in 2003 with the Valmet Factory where a number of Saabs were produced.

There is also a Saab Museum located in Uusikaupunki, Finland

If you want to find out more information on this museum you can visit the official site directly.

In 1984, Saab-Scania of Finland produced a promotional film titled “Saab Dealer Of The Year”. The film was produced in order to properly recognize their number 1 Saab dealership in every capacity of the year in Finland.

The criteria involved apparently covered every aspect of the dealership from sales, service as well as the parts department.

While this film is quite nostalgic and somewhat fun to watch, the “Saab Dealer Of The Year” program was extremely important in fostering an environment for Saab dealerships to exceed expectations and goals whenever possible.

If you are a Saab Dealership located anywhere on the globe and are reading this, I would be interested in what programs either Saab Automobile runs, and/ or your dealership runs today that serve this objective in a modern day sense.

In the meantime, I will be contacting Saab of Finland to see if they have this criteria in their archives from this program.

Enjoy the video below. For those non-native Finnish speakers, I would suggest watching the film in two segments. The Introduction at 00:00 to 01:35 and the finale at 08:30 to 10:45.

This video is the second in a series donated to Saab History from a Saab Enthusiast in Finland. This promotional film showcases the Saab 900 “Aero”, also known as the SPG in the United States for model year 1985. Enjoy.

Saab History has recently received another nice donation, this time from a Saab Enthusiast in Finland who has provided a DVD that contains a number of vintage promotional videos done by Saab-Scania of Finland from 1979 to 1984.

This video is the first in a series and features the 1985 model year 900i “notchback”, with a finnish voiceover. Enjoy.

Simo Lampinen, a native of Finland, has had a lengthy history as a SAAB rally driver. His contributions to the SAAB marque have been numerous and it is appropriate to provide a summary of his experiences and collaboration with Saab Automobile over the years. I have provided a writeup and rally history done by the kind folks at the Flying Finns that provides this important information.

Simo Lampinen overcame what was considered a huge obstacle to a rally driver; he contracted polio at a young age. He survived the childhood disease, but it left him with a very pronounced limp. Authorities granted him a driving license at age 17 so he could get to and from school more easily, but he quickly went on to acquire a competition license. He won his first major rally, Finland’s Rally of the 1000 Lakes, in 1963 when he was only 20. He went on to win the Finnish Rally Championship that year. Lampinen repeated that accomplishment in 1964, and won the Ice Racing Championship in 1965.

Lampinen began by driving SAABs, whose front-wheel drive and two-cycle engines were well suited to the winter conditions in Scandinavia. He became part of the Finnish Saab Team, the cars differentiated from the Swedish Saab Team’s red machines by their white and blue paint schemes.

Lampinen was wooed to Lancia in 1970, and won twice that year in the Fulvia HF. He returned to driving for Saab in 1972 and won the 1000 Lakes for the third time.

In recent years, Lampinen has been active as Clerk of Course for the 1000 Lakes Rally, now known as the Rally of Finland. In 1996, he was one of the instructors for the Saab 900 Talladega Challenge, an event at Talladega Speedway in Alabama in which Saab 900s were used to set several International speed records. He also assisted Saab in their assault on Pikes Peak in 2000, when Per Eklund drove to victory in a specially prepared Saab 9-3 Viggen.

Here is an another television advertisement believed to have been done in 1978 of the 99 in Finland. We also have another english translation thanks to Finnish Saab enthusiast Illmarinen.

Ajattele Talvea = Think about the winter.

Voice:

Sleet rained at night has made roads slushy and slippery and that’s why drivers
are warned because of bad driving conditions. At morning temperature drops below
zero celsius degrees and snow is raining a lot of in some places.